@ Bill E Pilgrim

I don't really believe in God, but as long as you're passing out titles, I'll take High Priestess.

I won't be any more phony than Rick Warren

I really, really don't believe in God, but can I be your first heretic? Contrary to the meme that's out there, I also don't believe Obama was sacrificed on the Saddleback Church alter.

Obama came into this race well aware that he would have to vault both the hurdle of his race and the other one of his "faith and values". I was outraged by the CNN program, early in the primary campaigns, when candidates were invited to express the way faith and values had affected their lives. It was the triumph of TV media's nullification of the Constitution's Article VI, Section 3, "no religious test" clause.

But Obama - not my choice at the time of the CNN program - intrigued me. He came across as one who spoke of the Constitution and the office to which he aspired as a Constitutionally-defined secular one, yet also spoke to his own faith. I saw an intellectual, a fully informed man, aware that he needed to place himself directly in the campaign crosshairs of his rational self (a scholar of Constitutional law aspiring to a secular office) and his irrational self (the religiously acceptable candidate). His latter assertions had to be powerful enough to transcend the baggage of his African, puportedly Islamic, father. I think Obama has nimbly picked his way through this stony path of religion, which is unreasonably treacherous for him because of the GOP's politiciation of far-right Christianity, and Obama's uniquely different heritage.

What impressed me about Obama Saturday was that, even in an assumed hostile politico/religio den, he appeared more comfortable in his own skin than McCain did.

That's the anomaly I saw:

Obama looked comfortable in his cafefully crafted answers which, for the most part, he knew the audience wouldn't agree with.

McCain, however, was tightly coiled, on guard toward those questions probing his inner self. He was uncomfortable in a milieu of his own party's base.

You're out drinking with your buddies instead of being in front of your computer because you have nothing to say profound, original or even moderately fresh about your own academic field?

Like Clarence Thomas, there are academics just smart enough to know they aren't smart enough; consequently, they keep their mouths/Word 7s shut.

I was in an absolute snit when I heard Franklin Graham give his invocation at Bush's inauguration. His opening statement was to some god who was "sovereign" over all of this nation. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and virtually all of the surviving debate that went on during the Constitutional Convention and its subsequent debates during ratification all clearly demonstrate that the revolutionary concept of this nascent republic was that it derives its sovereignty not from God - as manifest in the devine right of kings - but from its people.

By the argument put forth in this e-mail regarding Muslims, American Christians who believe America derives its sovereignty from God rather than its people do not good Americans make. Heh.

Sorry, I'm not good on spelling words related to spooky beliefs.

I just mosied over to the CNN site to see their take on this breaking, lead story.

http://www.cnn.com/

The headline is:

"Presidential debate the next victim of economic crisis."

WTF?

Here in Michigan, Obama's polls are moving up while McCain's are stagnant: Obama's lead in recent polls range from +5 to +9.

I'm from Motown, and I had to hit the mute button before I got run out of town.

Yeah! McCain is folding up his tent and stealing away, mayhap to campain in Missouri, which was to a sure bet for him.

Now that Kwame Kilpatrick (son of CBC Chair Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick) is gone, and a reorganized city government is working on turning out the vote (Michigan is a Red state without Detroit), the bonus for McCain might no longer be there.

It may come as a surprise to you E-man, but there is significant white voter support for Obama here in my state.

As of the 2000 census, Deroit had less than 1,000,000 residents and has continued to lose population these past 7+ years. No way has Obama surged from a dead heat to a nine point lead in MI because Detroit now has a different mayor. People all over the state are finally paying attention. Macomb County's Reagan Democrats are coming around to Obabma, and the affluent Oakland County had been turning increasingly purple since 2006.